The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-03-11
The Comparative Naval strength Of
the European Powers.

The minor naval powers are falling
more or less completely out Of the lists
Of naval competition. Spain and Por-
tugal have ceased 10 be, and Greece
has not become, If any naval import
ance, Spain alone making some small
effort to keep respectable. but even
that effort Is chiefly expanding ITSELF
as that Of the United States govern
ment Il about to expend itself, blythe
bye-in the prndnction Of very fast
vessels, which may be useful Ia prey
ing upon commerce, but which ARE
scarcely ut to tight even pirates, and
which u real war ship would dispose Of
with single round of her battery fire.
They will be efficient in running away,
no doubt, when danger arises; but
.'running away" was not the method
by which the United States won naval
distinction, nor that by which Spain
once became great, and Greece inn
mortal. Tho naval policy of Germany
is defensive; she Is almost without pre-
tensions upon the open sea. Turkey
is slowly but surely succumbing to Rus
STA. and in the near future the Russian
Black Sea fleet will hold unquestioned
mastery over Turkey. Italy has q
naval role of her own to play In Eu-
rope, and on the whole is playing it
well. Austria wonld do we'll to hesi-
tate in her present naval condition be-
fore again exposing herself to the swift
and destructive onslaughts which the
tremendously armed and excessively
fast Italians ships could make upon
her France is a really great naval
power, and there are circumstances
which would make naval conflict be-
tween her and England one of the
most uncertain in the history of the
world. The French have very largely
abandoned the protection of their guns
by armOr; we, most unhappily, have
still more largely abandoned the pro-
lection of our ships, and it remains 10
be seen which has been the most fool
ish. In such a conflict the French
would have this advantage over En-
gland-the overthrow Of their guns, or
the destruction of their gunners at
them, would not prevent their ships
themselves from withdrawing from ac-
ton and repairing their injuries, What
would become Of our "Ajaxes," uAga-
memnons," our "Collingwoods" and
''Benbows" both these latter with
guns as much exposed as the French,
by-the-bye), when their long fragile
ends had been smashed and water-log-
ged, and their high speed consequent
ly gone, is a question which | prefer
not to speak of further. There was,
there is, there ever will be, but one
sound policy for nation that desires
to command the seas, and can afford
to do so, and that is tO reject all doubt
full fads, all dangerous fancies, and to
insure without ceasing pronounced
superiority ia eUeyy kHOt0N AID aeGSsIr-
able clement Of IlavGt IlODer. New in
ventions will and must be made; new
sources of power, new means of attack,
will and must be discovered; but these
things take time and money and skill
to develop, and that power is the great
est and safest which from time to time
and always prefers the thing which
must succeed TO that which may, and
which Others fear will, fail in the hour
of trial. One hope /, the present writer,
have, and it is that the terrible devel-
opment of the weapons of WARRIOR
terrible it is with all its shortcomings
and the enormously increasing cost
alike of single actions and of conflicts
between squadrons and fleets, will tend
to further, and to greatly further, those
influences which are happily operating
in favor of peace and goodwill among
men.-Sir Eda0Grd j. Reed, ia Harper
Magazine.